Just in time for the start of the academic year, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has signed a law that helps keep sex offenders from working in schools.
Republican Senator Sue Serino and Democratic Assemblywoman Sandy Galef sponsored the bill that closes a loophole, now requiring that law enforcement agencies immediately inform school districts when a document has been filed against an employee involving allegations of a sex offense. The bill stemmed from an incident in Galef’s district, in Ossining, where a longtime school custodian had been convicted of third-degree rape of a victim under age 17 in another county. However, Galef says that state law did not require schools to be provided with arrest notifications of employees hired before 2001, as was the case with the custodian.
